Critics say firm hired to review Community Living BC includes founding architect of the Crown corporation

Critics are questioning whether the province’s review of Community Living BC will actually help prevent future tragedies.

In the wake of a coroner’s inquest into the death of a woman with Down syndrome, the province has ordered what it calls an “independent review” of Community Living BC’s home-sharing program.

At the time of her death from starvation in 2018, 54-year-old Florence Girard weighed just 54 pounds.

A court later convicted her provincially funded caregiver Astrid Dahl of failing to provide the necessities of life.

Girard’s death sparked a series of changes to the home-sharing program.

“I’m still hearing concerns from families,” said Sheila Malcolmson, the Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, which oversees CLBC. “The review that I’ve established is looking at how home sharing is operating right now in 2025 and whether the changes CLBC made since 2018 are having the impact we hoped.”

The government has hired Tamar Consultancy to conduct the review.

The firm has a limited footprint online, but Malcolmson confirms Tim Stainton is one of its principals.

Stainton is a professor emeritus in the School of Social Work at the University of British Columbia.

“His credentials are beyond reproach, quite frankly. I believe that the professor was around in that group before 2005 that actually helped to create CLBC,” said CLBC board chair Shane Simpson.

Stainton was part of the provincial Board of the Interim Authority for CLBC, which the province struck in 2002 to lay the groundwork for CLBC.

Not only is he one of the original architects of the Crown corporation he has just been hired to review – he has also conducted research at UBC sponsored directly by CLBC.

Reached by email, Stainton referred questions about his role in the review to the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction.

Simpson also has history with the agency that predates his time on its board.

When Girard starved to death in 2018, Simpson was an MLA and the government minister responsible for CLBC.

Down Syndrome BC president Tamara Taggart is skeptical the latest review, which is set to cost taxpayers $75,000, will yield much in the way of fresh ideas.

She told CTV News she would rather see the province focus on implementing each of the 15 jury recommendations that came out of the coroner’s inquest into Girard’s death.

The Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction expects the results of the latest review sometime in the fall.